Officials of Finnish Customs Warn of Scam Emails

Yle.fi reported in the first week of April 2014 stating that Finnish Customs officers are warning about a new email phishing campaign asking Finnish Internauts to provide details of their e-banking.

The hoax email reportedly tells the recipient about the arrival of a package for them which requires clearance from Finnish customs unit, at the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, Finland and urges them to send their e-banking login details by return email for processing the clearance online.

Yle.fi published a report in the first week of April 2014 quoting Mika Parkkonen, Chief Customs Communication, as saying "at least 6 persons have been duped by the scam by sending their e-banking details which fraudsters have used to obtain interim loans in the victim's name."

Customs became aware of the misuse of their banking information to get credit during last week of March 2014 but till now they don't know the degree of financial losses of victims.

Parkkonen noted that phishing emails look to be genuine as these are written in high-quality Finnish with email address of customs unit of the airport appearing as its sender.

Customs Officials highlighted the importance of following some simple security tips to avoid being victimized by phishing emails of the abovementioned types.

Firstly, never respond to email or pop-up messages which ask for personal or financial information like the above mentioned case. Secondly, always remember that email is not a safe method of transmitting personal and financial information and hence never click on links in the message or paste a link from the message into your Web browser as you might land on a phishing website which is controlled by phishers.

Also, remember that legitimate organizations like Finnish Customs like above never ask you to send sensitive information through emails or text messages as these details are already stored in their databases.

Moreover, if you have any doubt of being scammed then check your credit card and bank account statements for unauthorized charges as soon as you receive them and if you don't get statements then call to find your account balances.